Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the government’s pre-election policy to eventually place the National Broadband Network into private ownership. Can the Prime Minister confirm that this election commitment has been dumped at the behest of the Greens? Isn’t this a further example of how the government is losing its way while the Greens are finding theirs inside the Gillard government?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As the Leader of the Opposition probably should be aware, the government has said consistently that there would be an inquiry on privatisation. At the stage that we thought circumstances were right for privatisation, we would need to fully inquire into the matter. In order to deal with these questions in the Senate, we have been happy to agree that there will be parliamentary oversight as well. The Leader of the Opposition has had many different positions on questions of parliamentary oversight. Some days he is in favour; some days he has not. But we have been happy to agree on the question of parliamentary oversight in this case.

I also say to the Leader of the Opposition that, on the question of the bill before the Senate, there remains a critical decision for him to make. He needs to decide whether or not to stand in the way of this profound microeconomic reform and structural separation in our telecommunications industry. He needs to decide whether he will agree with that profound microeconomic reform or once again play the role of wrecker. In the modern age, the Liberal Party takes pride in the fact that, when in opposition during the Hawke and Keating governments, they did not resist from the opposition benches waves of important reforms brought to this country by the Hawke and Keating governments in order to open up our economy. The Leader of the Opposition might do well to reflect on the heritage of the Liberal Party on these questions and get out of the way of this profoundly important microeconomic reform.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask a supplementary question of the Prime Minister, just so that the position might be crystal clear. Can the Prime Minister confirm that it is still the government’s determination that the NBN will eventually be privatised?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I can confirm to the Leader of the Opposition that it is the government’s intention that NBN Co. will be privatised. I can confirm to the Leader of the Opposition that we will not be making the same errors that the coalition did when they privatised Telstra. We will not be making those errors where privatisation happened in circumstances where there was no regard for the regulatory settings or the impact of that privatisation—a matter that used to be raised in this parliament by the National Party as much as it was raised by anybody else. I can also confirm to the Leader of the Opposition that the government has always said that the sale of NBN Co. would be subject to full inquiry before it takes place. We have now boosted that with an agreement to have parliamentary consideration prior to that date. I say again: there are many days on which the Leader of the Opposition stands at the dispatch box and rants and raves about parliamentary consideration. I would find it quite remarkable indeed if he was suddenly opposed to parliamentary consideration.